Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) told NPR that she wants federal judges who are fair, qualified, and “care about individual and civil rights.”
And then, without missing a beat, she added: “If that’s considered liberal, as opposed to what I call justice and fairness, as I am wont to say, fuck them!”
Dan Balz: “In election after election, whether primary contests or special elections, women have provided energy at the ballot box and, increasingly, the leadership as candidates for the Democrats. That was in evidence again Tuesday, another day of validation that the dynamics of American politics have shifted under this president. If Democrats are to win the House in November, they must hope that is maintained through Election Day, although there have been no signs that this energy is abating.”
First Read: “Check out these numbers: In the merged NBC/WSJ polling of 2017, white women with college degrees preferred a Dem-controlled Congress by 17 points (55% to 38%). In the merged NBC/WSJ polling from January to April, it was 26 points (60% to 34%). And in this latest poll, the margin is now 30 points (60% to 30%).”
“Jeanine Pirro has a top-rated Fox News show and a forthcoming book — Lies, Leakers, and Liberals — but she still wants to be President Trump’s attorney general,” Politico reports.
“A former prosecutor and judge, Pirro has repeatedly told Trump’s aides and advisers over the past 18 months that she’s interested in taking over as the nation’s top law enforcement official… Trump has dangled the possibility of giving her a top appointment.”
CNN: “Trump and Kim are due to meet on June 12 for the first time and the US leader is due to return home the next day, but US officials in Singapore have established a contingency plan for a second day of discussions.”
“It’s not clear if Trump is eager for a two-day summit with Kim, but he has expressed a desire for flexibility in the negotiations and has stressed to aides and US allies that he plans to follow his gut as he negotiates with the North Korean leader.”
Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump possessed less relevant experience and subject expertise for the job of president than any person ever elected to the job. Those deficits can be offset, to a degree, with dogged study and hard work. But rather than make up for his historical lack of qualifications, Trump has compounded the problem with historical laziness. He famously lounges in front of the television having ‘Executive Time’ until 11 a.m., checks out early, refuses to read briefings, and otherwise disdains the most important parts of his job.”
An article by Gov. John Kasich (R) in Foreign Affairs will only increase speculation that he’s laying the groundwork for another presidential bid:
Although American leaders should always put American interests first, that does not mean that we have to build walls, close off markets, or isolate the United States by acting in ways that alienate our allies. Continuing to do that will not insulate us from external challenges; it will simply turn us into bystanders with less and less influence. I choose cooperation and engagement. Only those who have forgotten the lessons of history can credibly contend that peace and prosperity await us inside ‘Fortress America.’”
Boston Globe: “For local and statewide campaigns normally walled off from Washington, Trump has loomed large across the ballot in Massachusetts this year, permeating the dialogue and campaign messaging in races that are usually dominated by local, not federal, issues.”
Said legislative candidate Lindsay Sabadosa (D): “He’s kind of like that figure — he who shall not be named — who sort of looms above all things. Even at my campaign kickoff, I was asked: ‘What can you do, as a state representative, about Trump?’”
“Republicans are working on a backup plan in case the GOP tax law does not turn out to be a strong selling point for their party in this year’s midterm elections,” The Hill reports.
“While the booming economy is expected to be a core pillar of the GOP’s midterm messaging, it’s unclear whether the party is going to get credit for the tax law, which has lagged in polls.”
“As a result, GOP leaders on both sides of the Capitol are emphasizing a breadth of legislative achievements as they seek to convince voters to keep them in charge and not deliver majorities to Democrats.”
“A collaboration between an independent Christian filmmaker and one of America’s largest evangelical universities is showcasing the growing prominence of a provocative belief about President Trump ― that he was divinely appointed to lead the United States,” the HuffPost reports.
Politico: “The controversial issue of ‘superdelegates’ and their future in the Democratic Party led to an angry confrontation on Tuesday night between DNC Chairman Tom Perez and House Democrats… But the members’ angst may not help them as it appears that the DNC is ready to rein in the status of superdelegates, also known as ‘unpledged’ delegates, no matter what lawmakers say or do.”
Maryland gubernatorial candidate Richard Madaleno (D) “is launching an ad that highlights several ways he’s stood up to President Trump — a far better punching bag among the state’s Democrats than highly popular Gov. Larry Hogan (R),” the Washington Post reports.
“The ad ends with an on-screen gesture designed to irritate Trump’s conservative base: a lip-smacking kiss between Madaleno, a longtime state senator who if elected would be the state’s first openly gay governor, and his husband, Mark Hodge.”
“The ad is slated to run starting Thursday in the D.C. area during Fox & Friends, which the president spends a lot of time watching.”
Politico: “For decades, top presidential advisers have used a methodical process to hash out national security issues before offering the president a menu of options for key decisions. On an issue like North Korea, that would mean White House Situation Room gatherings of the secretaries of state and defense along with top intelligence officials, the United Nations ambassador, and even the treasury secretary, who oversees economic sanctions.”
“But since Trump agreed on a whim to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on March 8, the White House’s summit planning has been unstructured… Trump himself has driven the preparation almost exclusively on his own, consulting little with his national security team outside of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”
Reuters: “While the hawkish John Bolton – who has adopted a lower-key approach in recent days – is expected to be in Singapore for the talks on Tuesday, Pompeo has taken the lead as the administration assumes a softer tone toward Pyongyang ahead of the summit.”
Time finds that President Trump has made at least 191 separate arguments about the Russia investigation.
“Since the first questions were raised about the Russian influence operation in 2016, Trump has put forward defenses, raised doubts and thrown out attacks and counter-claims at a rate that dwarfs the typical presidential response to an investigation.”
“Some of the arguments contradict each other. Trump has argued that Russians didn’t meddle in the election, that it may have meddled but so did other countries and that the real scandal is that Barack Obama didn’t stop Russian meddling.”
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt “loves eating at the White House mess, an exclusive U.S. Navy-run restaurant open only to White House officials, Cabinet members and other dignitaries. But apparently he liked it too much, and the White House asked him to please eat elsewhere sometimes,” Politico reports.
“In response to Pruitt’s recurring use of the restaurant next to the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing, a member of the White House’s Cabinet affairs team told agency chiefs of staff in a meeting last year that Cabinet members shouldn’t treat the mess as their personal dining hall.”
Sean Hannity sarcastically advised witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to “follow Hillary Clinton’s lead” and destroy their personal phones before handing them over to prosecutors, The Hill reports.
Said Hannity: “Maybe Mueller’s witnesses, I don’t know. If I advised them to follow Hillary Clinton’s lead, delete all your emails and then acid-wash your emails and hard drives on the phones, then take your phones and bash them with a hammer to little itsy bitsy pieces, use BleachBit, remove the sim cards and then take the pieces and hand them over to Robert Mueller, and say, Hillary Rodham Clinton, this is equal justice under the law.”
Politico: “Foreign leaders are learning that hand-holding, golf games, military parades and other efforts to personally woo President Donald Trump do not guarantee that Trump won’t burn them on key policy issues.”
“Trump calls Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who visits the White House Thursday, his ‘good friend.’ French president Emmanuel Macron is a ‘great friend.’ And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a ‘great friend, neighbor, and ally.’ All have sought to butter up Trump through friendly face time, recognizing that the quickest way to the president’s heart is through his ego.”
“But all, to varying degrees, are exasperated with Trump.”
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that by a whopping 25-point margin, voters say they’re more likely to back a congressional candidate who promises to serve as a check on President Trump.
“At the same time, six-in-10 are satisfied with the U.S. economy, and a plurality of voters give Trump credit for the economic improvement. Despite that economic optimism, however, the poll shows that Democrats enjoy a 10-point advantage on congressional preference, with 50% of registered voters wanting a Democratic-controlled Congress, versus 40% who want a GOP-controlled one.”
Wall Street Journal: “Five months before the voting, Democrats are more focused on the campaign. Some 63% of Democrats said they are very interested in the midterms, compared with 47% of Republicans. Democrats’ interest in the race exceeds that of a comparable point in 2006—a year when the party picked up 31 House and six Senate seats in a midterm rout that then-Republican President George W. Bush called a ‘thumping.'”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.